The other day I was on the hunt for colored elastic; WIDE colored elastic. It’s easy to find white and black in fabric shops, but no one seems to carry the colored variety! I guess most people aren’t using exposed elastic on their projects. But if you’re into making Circle Skirts, a little variety would be great!
A friend tipped me off to this ebay shop that sells webbing (which is similar but feels more like 80s wrist bands; more for athletic clothing). I just wasn’t content. So, duh….why not dye it!
And that’s just what I did.
For additional tips on Dyeing fabric, please read through our other tutorial first:
The process here is very simple.
You need: elastic, dye, water, a bowl and spoon, and gloves. That’s it!
A quick note about Elastic:
Most elastics found in fabric shops are about 80% polyester, 20% rubber. You’ll find some that are a cotton/rubber blend and actually absorb the dye better than polyester elastic. However, I’ve only seen cotton elastic in 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch wide. If anyone has a source for WIDE cotton elastic, please leave a link in the comments!
Okay, let’s get started.
Grab your dye.
I used this Lemon Yellow RIT powder dye. It worked fine/great. But moving forward I think I’ll stick with the liquid variety. Liquid costs twice as much but it mixes better with the water and ensures a more even dye bath. If the powder isn’t dissolved entirely into the water (like mixing koolaid) you may end up with a spot here or there of concentrated dye on your fabric or elastic.
Grab a large bowl and spoon (I have a designated set that I always use for dyeing).
Fill it with the hottest water you can get from your tap. You don’t need to boil the water; just use what comes out of your pipes.
Mix in the dye, till it’s completely dissolved and mixed well:
Then throw in your elastic (or other items). Don’t overcrowd the bowl or your items won’t get an even dye. But don’t waste the chance to turn plain white into lemon yellow! If you have an extra baby onesie or a white T-shirt, throw them in too! Make the most of your dyeing efforts.
With gloves on, stir, squish, and move the elastic around in the dye. Do this for a few minutes and then you can walk away for a bit. Every 5-10 minutes come back and stir, squish, and move the elastic around. Leave the elastic in for as short or as long as you like. The finished product will typically look lighter than it does in the dye bath, so keep that in mind.
I left these elastics in for 1 hour.
When you’re at the desired color, dump out the water.
And rinse it a few times.
Beautiful yellow! Now throw it in the washing machine and run a normal cycle, then dry it in the dryer (or air dry). The only downside to the project is that it uses a fair amount of water. So I usually find ways to cut back on my other water consumption for the day to balance it out.
And…..you have colored elastic!
Here’s a sample of elastics from the RIT dye bath. All were left in for 1 hour. The cotton elastic on the far right dyed best. But I was very pleased with the Polyester elastic and will definitely be trying this again with other colors:
Elastic dyeing couldn’t be easier!
Of course, different dyes may give you different results (which is why I recommend trying a few brands out and also why I stick with the above method for dyeing). I decided to branch out and tried a new dye called iDye Poly, specifically recommended for dyeing Polyester. But the process went poorly.
It involved powdered dye, a liquid color intensifier, and boiling on the stove.
I followed the instructions,
But I never felt like the powder was completely dissolved.
And when I put the elastic in, it turned out like this, with big splotches of dye everywhere:
It wasn’t messy enough to actually look cool or intentional. But I washed it up anyway and I’ll use it for other projects that have hidden elastic in a casing:
It may have been my own errors using the dye; perhaps other people have had better results. But for now, I’ll stick with my hot water/bowl method above.
Well, the only remaining question is…..what should you do with your lovely dyed elastic???
Make a Circle Skirt of course!
You’ll find the complete Tutorial for women and girls HERE.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for sharing this information. I was trying to find 2″ wide colored elastic to make my girls a skirt and came across your site. I will be using it a lot in the future!!
It looks like I just found some cotton elastic in 4 and 6 inch!
http://www.designeralleyfabrics.com/CartGenie/prod-157.htm
Here is some really cute wide elastic on ETSY!!!! They have stripes!
oops, here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/acafterglow?section_id=5326517
Thanks for the fantastic tutorial. The photographs were really clear and very helpful. Is it possible to save (and reuse) the dye that you tipped out once you finished dying your elastic?
Kim
Hmmm, you could probably do that. You might need to warm up the water again though…maybe on the stove.
Glad it worked out well for you!
Hey Dana,
Love your site and your tutorials are amazing! I was wondering, can you share where you get your elastic from? I’m having a hard time finding large amounts of it, I’ve been making skirts for myself and my teammates for rollerderby but the elastic is costing me a fortune!
Thanks,
Amanda
I’ve mostly purchased it at Joanns. You can buy it online from their site too. Or try etsy or ebay. Hope that helps!
Thank you for your vivid photos of the process. I too just recently had an epiphany about “hey, why don’t I just dye the elastic I need in the colors I want…duhh.” I used the liquid Rit, I got the dark brown. So, I omitted the hot water (was that wrong?), I poured the entire bottle of dark brown liquid dye into a plastic bowl and added 1/4 cup of salt. Then I put in my 3 strips of 1/2″ white braided elastic into the bowl and sealed it overnight on the counter. The reason I didn’t dilute with water is because I thought I might get a darker more richer brown, which is exactly what I need.
Next day, I pick the elastic out of the dye and proceed to rinse them in the sink, to my everlasting dismay, the color was like a beige, I’ve bought flesh tone elastic at craft stores that were more dark!
What happened, was it me?
My next grand idea, use fabric markers/paint. The paint isn’t working too well (turns the elastic into plastic), the fabric markers…expensive!
What should I do?
NeoMe – you could try coloring it with a sharpie. I’ve done that on projects that I only needed a small amount of elastic so it didn’t take very long and once the marker dries it doesn’t rub off.
I’ve only used the liquid dye once before and I added the hot water like it calls for on the bottle and had wonderful results. Maybe worth trying again with the water added. I’ve also heard that using boiling water can speed up the dying process.
beautiful i didnt get my hands in dying elastic but look foreward to the near ,near near,near,neeeaaaarrrr(wait almost there;)}rrrrrr- future LOL but i just did a little twist with mine ! it can be seen on my blog on the little girl skirts I think you’ll find them. beautiful also
What brand of elastic did you use for this? I just want to make sure I buy the right thing. I’m still a bit of a novice, but I love this skirt and want to make several for my 2 year old!
I used 2 inch knit or braid elastic from Joanns. You can usually buy in their online store as well.
I’ve been having trouble getting the elastic to take the dye. It would be great if I wanted only pastel elastic but how do you get bright colors? I tried leaving it for hours and it’s still a muted color..
It’s hard to get bright colors since most elastic is polyester based and most store-bought dyes work better with cotton than polyester. I’ve only had luck with pastels as well. But Joanns just started carrying bright elastic colors in their stores! It only comes 1-inch wide. But they have hot pink, gray, purple, turquoise, brown, and some other colors!
For everyone reading this: please only use containers and pots that YOU DO NOT EAT OUT OF, to dye your fabrics. I saw the picture of the pot on the stove and was a bit worried about there not being any warning. I do not have a dye specific vat at home, so I soak my dye in hot water in the washing machine with some salt before sending it through the cycle.
thanks for the tip! I will be using it !
Does the elastic fade on the skirt when you launder it?
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